Early able to notch first win, Bangs splits final two games

The Early Longhorns chalked up their first victory of the season in the first of two games Saturday at the Underwood’s Christmas Classic.

The Longhorns snapped a season-opening four-game losing streak with a 47-32 victory over the Dublin Lions.

Trailing 11-9 after one quarter, the Longhorns grabbed a 25-22 halftime advantage. Early then held Dublin to two points in the third quarter as the Longhorns took a 36-24 lead into the fourth period.

Three Longhorns finished with a team-high nine points — Kaleb Hopson, Sean Aly and Michael Kramer. Addison Ebarb added eight points, while Thomas Aly chipped in five points. Also scoring were Cameron King, Seth Coolbaugh and Chandler Childs with two points each and Karlton Keesee with one point.

Dublin received 15 points from DeWayne Keith and 10 points from Landon Miller.

Early dropped its tournament finale, 36-26, to Brady despite leading by seven points after one quarter.

The Longhorns opened an 11-4 lead after the initial eight minutes, but Early scored just 15 points the rest of the game.

Brady rallied to take a 14-13 halftime lead, then scored the first eight points of the second half to boost the advantage to 22-13.

Early closed to the gap to 24-19 by the end of the quarter, but Brady built the lead back to 28-19.

Sean Aly’s three-pointer with 4:23 left brought Early to within 28-24, but Brady outscored the Longhorns 8-2 down the stretch.

Childs and Keesee led Early with six points each, followed by four from Ebarb, three each from Sean Aly and Coolbaugh, two points from Thomas Aly and one point each from Hopson and Kramer.

Early (1-5, 0-1) will resume District 6-2A action at 8 p.m. Thursday at Wall.

Bangs 57, Snyder 48

Goldthwaite 50, Bangs 44

The Bangs Dragons put themselves in position for an undefeated run through the Division II portion of the Underwood’s Christmas Classic, but their plans were foiled.

After picking up a 57-48 win over Snyder in just their second game of the tournament Saturday afternoon, the Dragons were knocked off by Goldthwaite, 50-44, in the finale at Brownwood High School.

“I would be ticked if Goldthwaite wasn’t a pretty good team, but they’re a good ball club,” said Bangs head coach Mark Kyle. “They played good enough to win and we played good enough to hang in there. The shots just didn’t fall tonight, but we played a good game.”

Bangs led 17-12 after one quarter, but Goldthwaite rallied to grab a 26-23 halftime edge. The Dragons stayed within three points through three quarters, 35-32, but were outscored 15-12 in the final eight minutes.

Joey Lewis led the Dragons with 15 points, followed by seven from Bradley Lee, six each from Justin Greenhaw, Justin Kyle and Cody Cross, and four points from Adrian Brown.

Goldthwaite received 27 points combined from Wade and Walt Clifton. Michael Williams and Taylor Watson added nine points each for the Eagles.

In Bangs’ win over Snyder, the game was deadlocked at 26 at halftime. The Dragons, however, outscored Snyder 12-7 in the third period and 19-15 in the fourth to pull away for the victory.

Four Dragons finished in double figures, led by Lewis’ 14 points. Brown and Greenhaw chipped in 12 points each while Lee tallied 10. Kyle added five points and John Fincher finished with two.

Brooks Gafford led Snyder with 15 points, followed by 12 points from Brent Bollinger.